L.A.’s job market showed some surprising strength in June as the unemployment rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted 4.6 percent from 5.1 percent in May and 5.3 percent a year ago.

L.A. County also posted a solid gain of 51,000 payroll jobs over the past 12 months, for a 1.3 percent increase. The total of 4,071,200 payroll jobs was also up 7,000 from May’s figure.

“Los Angeles has now posted quite a string of 50,000-plus year-over-year payroll job gains, indicating strong job performance, if not spectacular,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Statewide, the job gains were more modest in June, with only 11,000 jobs being added to payrolls out of a total of nearly 15 million. For the last 12 months, though, the state has added 235,000 payroll jobs, for an increase of 1.6 percent.

The statewide unemployment rate also fell to a seasonally 4.9 percent in June from 5.0 percent in May and 5.4 percent in June 2005.

Los Angeles County was in the middle of the pack for Southern California unemployment rates in June, with lower unemployment than Riverside and San Bernardino counties but higher than Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties.

Typically in June, unemployment numbers are stable or even rise slightly as schools let out for the summer. But this year, especially in Los Angeles, a strong summer tourist season may be counteracting this trend.

“We’re having an exceptionally strong tourist season and there’s a lot of hiring going on within all the sectors related to tourism and hospitality,” Kyser said, pointing to an increase of 2,500 leisure and hospitality jobs in June.

Also performing strongly in June was the trade, transportation and utilities sector up 3,400 jobs boosted by the peak shipping season and strong summer hiring of teenagers and college students.

Over the last 12 months, 10 of the 11 major industry sectors in Los Angeles County posted year-over-year job gains. The largest was 8,500 jobs in the trade, transportation and utilities sector. That was followed by leisure and hospitality (7,500); information, including motion picture and television employment, (7,300; and business and professional services (7,200.)

One sector of note: government, which for the first time in several years is posting job gains as the painful budget cuts of earlier this decade fade into memory. Over the last 12 months, state and local governments have added 5,500 jobs to their payrolls in Los Angeles County.

The only sector to post a year-over-year decrease was manufacturing. But even here, the news has been better of late. Manufacturing has dropped 2,300 jobs in the past 12 months; that’s a far cry from the drops of 10,000 or more in previous years.

At the local level, the city of Los Angeles posted an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent in June, down from 5.5 percent in May. Long Beach’s unemployment rate also fell to 5.4 percent in June from 5.6 percent in May.

The lowest unemployment rate in L.A. County cities with more than 100,000 population was Torrance at 2.2 percent, followed by Santa Clarita at 2.7 percent. The highest unemployment rate among larger cities was Lancaster at 6.4 percent followed by Inglewood at 5.8 percent.